001school district number 48 on Tuesday, August 5th at 6:00 p.m. Will everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? >> Ready? Begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we'll do roll call. We have two of our members uh we believe in the cloud. Are you there, members? Yes, Matthew Patinsky is on the phone and will be joining in person in about 30 minutes. >> Okay, great. Drive safely. He just landed in is at the airport on his way. Karen, are you there? >> I am. I'm here. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Go ahead, Miss Warner. >> Uh, are we doing roll call? Is that what we're
002doing? >> Thank you. >> Yes. >> Amy Carney, >> Mike Shy, >> and Donna Lewis. Uh, I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Do we have a second? >> Second. All right. All those in favor? >> I I hear unanimous eyes unless I hear otherwise. Hearing none, go with 50. All right. The meeting decorum for today or always. Citizens attending and are participating in Scottsdale Unified School District meetings either in person, virtually, or telephonically are required to observe the same rules of order and decorum applicable to members of the governing board and staff. Unauthorized remarks or demonstrations from members of the audience, yells, outbursts, and/or other disruptions are not permitted. Thank you. All right. Uh Dr. Menzel, we have student and staff recognitions tonight. >> Well, good evening, President Lewis,
003Vice President Shy, members of the governing board, sta students, staff, family, and community members who are here this evening. Uh we are excited to celebrate the beginning of our 129th year serving students in Scottsdale. And we're going to begin by acknowledging some accomplishments over the summer. And I want to start by introducing Patty Bilbury, our director of nutrition services, who's going to tell you about some very exciting things that happened this summer. Patty, >> turn that on. >> Is that on? Oh, yeah, it is. Good evening, President Dr. Lewis, members of the governing board, and those in the cloud, Dr. Mensel and Glattis. Tonight, we're not just talking about meals. We're celebrating what happens when the right people connect, the right doors open, and when the right partner says, "Yes, we have a room." Thanks
004to the amazing partnership between Scottsdale Community College, the Salt River Puma Maricopa Indian Community, and SUSD, our rural non- congregate summer meal service program found a home for the summer. And what a home it was. But before we talk about meals and the mileong car lines, let's rewind to the original story. A little birdie asked Dr. Mensel if he had a contact at Scottsdale Community College and that we could reach out to them with an idea about SEC being a designated rural location. That request turned into a chat between Dr. Mensel and Dr. Lashinski from SEC. And before you know it, we got a call that SEC will do whatever it takes to make it happen. A little chat here, >> a little visionary thinking there, >> and suddenly boom, you've got ourselves a feeding
005site. In just short, eight short weeks of weekly Wednesday pickups, SUSD nutrition services served just shy of 135,000 meals to more than 9600 students all in 8 days. That's not a typo. That's a mountain of meal kits and a whole lot of applesauce. These meals were served at no cost to the children and the program costs were fully reimbursed by the USDA summer food service program. The SEC site wasn't just convenient. It was safe, welcoming, and wonderfully organized. Largely thanks to Commander Watts and the SEC campus police who managed traffic, kept us safe, and somehow managed to keep their cool even when we had 400 cars looping through the campus like it was the line at Disney Space Mountain. Now, for real, it was like a Disney line. And of course, we can't forget our
006wonderful Melanie Burn from SEC, who became our very own traffic control superhero, zooming around in her golf cart with updates, pep talks, and full of support for the mission at hand. But beyond the logistics, there was something deeper. Some families drove, sorry, I made it. Some families drove over an hour to reach us. Some came for their own children, and some came for neighbors who didn't own a car. We saw tears of relief, heard words of gratitude, children with squeals of joy, and stories that reminded us that this wasn't just a meal, it was a lifeline. This partnership, sparked by a vision and carried out by so many caring hands, proves just how powerful collaboration can be. Dr. Lashinsky, Scottsdale Community College, and our SUSD nutrition services are all the unsung heroes who made this
007possible. Thank you. It just didn't You didn't just help us feed kids. You reminded us of the importance of why we do what we do. We look forward to keeping this partnership going and the golf cart rolling in the future. So, thank you, Dr. Lysinsky. We couldn't have done it without you all. And Patty has a SUSD challenge coin to present. >> An SUSD challenge coin for all of the work you did to help us reach so many families in need. Thank you. >> Thank you, Patty, and thank you, Dr. Lashinski. It was truly incredible to watch 135,000 meals and it was really, really warm out there and our people had smiles on their faces because they knew what they were doing made a difference in the lives of children and families. So, that was
008outstanding. Our next uh celebration will be some additional summer work that was accomplished. I'm going to invite Leah Mitchell to come and tell us about our next two recipients. >> Good evening, everyone. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Um, this evening I am honored to bring forward Stacy Pascal and recognize and celebrate her. [Applause] So Stacy, I'm going to give you her first. >> Thank you so much for your unwavering dedication to the support and growth of all of Scottsdale Unified teachers. Stacy's leadership in professional learning is marked by her thoughtful coordination, strategic collaboration, and the design of exceptional learning systems that directly impact the classroom experience. This summer, Stacy led the planning and execution of Teachella, a dynamic, engaging professional learning event that welcomed over 400 teachers on their summer vacation, no pay,
009um to engage in learning together. True to its name, Teachella celebrated teacher voice and choice, offering a wide range of sessions aligned to educators interests, needs, and passions. In addition, Stacy also designed and delivered an outstanding 3-day onboarding experience for nearly 150 new teachers, including 50 individuals who are entering the teaching for profession for the very first time. Her work not only ensures that new teachers feel supported from day one, but also fosters a strong foundation for excellence in instruction across our district. Stacy is a bold innovator, bringing cutting edge AI tools into our classrooms. These tools enhance teacher practices and provide real-time coaching to help meet the diverse needs of students. Her vision for innovation extends beyond technology. It includes reimagining structures, developing sustainable systems, and continuously seeking teacher feedback to create a more
010personalized and impactful learning experience. Because of Stacy's leadership and her collaboration, her forward thinking approach, we're proud to bring forward so many incredible professional learning experiences this year, including SUSD's very own professional learning library, a robust platform filled with meaningful coursework, webinars, and training videos curated specifically to support our teachers based on their needs that they've expressed to us. Stacy, thank you for your tireless commitment to all of us, to our growth, to our professionalism, and ultimately to the impact it has on our students. So happy to have you. Thank you. So, while I think hopefully all of our families and students were enjoying summertime vacationing, we had lots of members of the team busy planning, organizing, and learning. So, I'd also like to welcome up Michelle Irvin this evening. Yes. Oh, yes. So proud
011to recognize Michelle Irvin for her outstanding leadership, coordination, and partnership efforts that brought our 2025 Leader Palooa event to life. Occasionally, I'll get an idea. I'll try and convince people to come along with it. And occasionally, you need these strong partners who can help bring it to life. And that was Michelle. Thanks to Michelle's vision, dedication, her collaborative spirit, this year's event was a resounding success, welcoming hundreds of educators and leaders from across the district for three days of powerful professional learning, inspiration, and connection. Michelle played a critical role in securing and strengthening our partnership with Scottsdale Community College. Oh, I think Dr. Lashinsky already snuck away. His partnership was so impactful in this event as well. But SEC served as the perfect d backdrop for this energizing experience. From managing logistics and facilities to
012designing thoughtful and engaging event structures, Michelle ensured that every detail of leader Palooa reflected excellence and intentionality. More than just logistical success, her leadership was also instrumental in ensuring that the SUSD rally went off without a hitch. From coordinating complex details to creating a welcoming and celebratory atmosphere, Michelle helped design an event that helped bring together our entire educational community in a powerful display of unity, purpose, and excitement for the year ahead. Her thoughtful planning and execution made it possible for every attendee to feel valued, inspired, and ready to embrace the work ahead with renewed energy. Michelle, thank you so much for your unwavering commitment to excellence, your strategic leadership, and your belief in the power of collaboration to elevate our district and every child, family, and staff member that we serve. [Applause] Thank you,
013Stacy. Thank you, Michelle. And thank you, Leah. We have a few more uh celebrations this evening. Uh the next one, uh Scotsdale Unified School District's finance department CEO Shannon Croer uh was notified this summer that we received the certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting from the government finance officers association. Uh it's important to note that uh our finance team works tirelessly to ensure that we're complying with the highest standards and this is the 33rd year that Scasa Unified School District has received this distinguished honor which is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting. This achievement demonstrates our commitment to the communities we serve and our dedication to following the highest standards of educational financial reporting. So, I'd like to take a moment to congratulate our CFO, Shannon Croer, and
014the people working on her team for their hard work. Also recognized this summer was our communications team. Uh the National School Public Relations Association's gold medallion winner SUSD team, Christine Harrington and others uh received the 2025 award at the National Conference in Washington DC. The Gold Medallion is ENSPRA's highest honor, awarded to exemplary educational public relations programs grounded in strategic communication best practices. This year, just 13 school districts and educational associations across the country received the esteemed recognition, making this achievement even more significant. Our communications team was honored for their comprehensive strategic year-round communications program, specifically the choose SUSD uh campaign that launched in 2024. This initiative highlights what makes our school stand out and effectively communicates the value of an SUSD education to the families and broader community. I want to give a shout
015out to Christine, Victor Bobbit, Steven Paloo, recently departed Alio and Nancy and the other members of the communication team who contributed to this effort. In addition to receiving this award, Christine led a roundt discussion at the national conference, sharing insights on impactful year-round marketing and communication strategies for school districts across the nation. Please join me in giving a round of applause to our outstanding communication team. And as best as I can tell, that's the first gold medallion uh award that SUSD has received. So, thank you, Christine. Uh finally, uh during the course of last year, uh we were announcing National Merit Scholarship recipients, and we have one final student that we want to recognize. We learned this summer that Ari Shot from Arcadia High School uh received a National Merit Scholarship. We're told he intends
016to study mechanical engineering at Purdue University. We want to issue uh to give him our heartfelt congratulations and wish him best of luck as he heads to the Midwest to begin his educational career at Purdue. With that, I'd like to turn it back to President Lewis. >> Thank you, Dr. Venzel. And that goes right back to you, right? Are you is that a combination of your soup comments? >> I do have two more things. >> Okay. >> And then then we'll be done. So, so, uh, in my superintendent's comments, I just want to point out that last week we celebrated our back- to-school rally where we welcomed all of our SUSD employees to one of two back- tochool sessions. The first one was at Sarro at 8 a.m. and the second one was at Desert
017Mountain High School at 11. I want to give um special appreciation to our host schools because there's a little bit more that's put on their plate when we have everyone gather at their facilities. I also want to give a shout out to all of the people behind the scenes who uh made it go off without a hitch. Uh tremendous energy. Uh we did get feedback from staff and and no matter how hard you try to get ahead of educa uh air conditioning in the in the desert heat still is a challenge, but that didn't seem to dampen the enthusiasm of our people in the room. Um our theme this year is our focus their future. and we continue to talk about the ways in which the decisions we make will help ensure our students are
018prepared for future success. So, we sent out a summary uh video that that can help you see a little bit of the enthusiasm and I would really encourage everyone to watch the values videos. They were made by our students, our staff, our parents, shot by our communications team, Alio. They're really compelling and they're short and they're on our website. Uh they're inspirational. I encourage everyone to take a few minutes of your time to watch those six videos. And then finally, uh, we've now been back to school for two days. And it is always so exciting. Our cabinet team gets out to all of the buildings. So, we get a chance to see the excitement on the eyes of the students and the staff, also troubleshoot when we have some issues and challenges. But, it's really
019uh encouraging to see the positive energy on each of our campuses. I want to give a special shout out to our facilities team. Uh especially with record heat. Uh this is a really tough time and they are troubleshooting doing everything they can to make sure that our school facilities are cooled properly so that it's a good learning environment for our students and staff. Also want to give a shout out to our transportation team which has done a tremendous job. We've had some challenges with the contractor. We're working on those diligently, but our team has done an amazing job in making sure our students get to and from school well uh safely and on time as best as we can. And so those have been positive things to celebrate. Then finally, I want to thank our
020on the ground staff, our teachers, our assistant principles, our principles, our front office staff who are greeting families. Uh we have so many people coming to school excited about learning and we're looking forward to making this the best year yet in Scottsdale Unified. >> Thank you, Dr. Benzel. Such an exciting time of year. As we move to public comments, I'll read the public comment statement. In compliance with open meeting law, the governing board may not discuss or take action tonight on any matters raised during public comments that are not on the agenda. However, the governing board members may respond to direct criticism, ask staff to review a matter, or that a matter be placed on a future agenda. Public comments will be conducted in accordance with board policy BEDH. As a reminder, each speaker will
021have two minutes. The screen will indicate the time. Please prepare be prepared to close your comments and relinquish the floor at the conclusion of your time. The board asks that each speaker please uh introduce yourself by stating your name and whether you live within our school district for clarity on the record. We thank you for your time and attendance here this evening and your cooperation in following and meeting the decorum and protocols. I will read the name of the speaker. When you hear your name, could you please come to the podium? I will read the name of the next speaker to be ready on deck. And once you start speaking, your time will start. All right. Our first speaker tonight is Dr. Janelle Dansky. And our next speaker will be Jeff Ratley. Good evening, President
022Dr. Lewis, members of the governing board, Dr. Menzel and Glattis. My name is Dr. Janelle Dansky and I'm the principal of Arcadia High School. I'm here this evening to celebrate a legislative win that will have significant and lasting impact on our students. In the most recent legislative session, an important amendment was passed that extends the provision allowing schools to use tax credit funds for capital expenditures through June 30th, 2029. The original sunset date was June 2024. So, this extension is both timely and deeply appreciated. This change didn't happen by accident. It took persistence and strong advocacy. I want to publicly recognize and thank Alexis Susdorf of State 48 public affairs. With her support, we first presented this idea to legislators who visited Arcadia in the fall of 2023. Alexexas continued to champion this cause, working
023tirelessly over the past two years and keeping the momentum alive well beyond my own efforts, which included a presentation to the state senate finance committee in the spring of 2024. The simple legislative amendment will have monumental impact on Arcadia and other SUSD schools. Many don't realize that Arcadia is nearing title one status with approximately 38% of our students qualifying for free or reduced price lunch. We've relied on general tax credit funds to support extracurricular activities that lack the fundraising reach of our athletics programs. Thanks to these funds, we've been able to build a robotics workshop, outfit an esports practice room for our competitive teams, and purchase dry or race tables to support our free afterchool tutoring program. The ability to continue using tax credit dollars for capital purchases unlocks a $50,000 budget in our Arcadia
024alone, resources that will directly benefit students for years to come. I'm deeply grateful to Alexis Sus. [Music] Thank you, Dr. Dansky. Jeff Ratley to be followed by TJ Buckley. >> Well, you certainly know who I am, Dr. Lewis. The worst thing that you can say about a person is that they simply don't care. I was summoned to an executive board meeting to resolve my issues. After waiting 5 and 1/2 hours, uh, I was called in. And I no sooner sat down than you and your sidekick voted to tell me to go home. You weren't interested in a single word I had to say because you don't care. This school board is in violation of a direct order by a federal judge and you don't care. It is well documented that I was fired after 13
025years as a substitute teacher in the district by Scott Menzel for refusing to call girls by boys names without the parents written permission. Shortly thereafter, I stood at this very microphone and exposed the corruption in Scott Menzel's office. Shortly after that, Manzel decided some real revenge was in order. He stole my $1,800 coaching stipen and collaborated with his finance director, Shannon Crosier, on some scheme to give that money to a lady who was hanging around my practices and games. She never coached a single day. She was very close personal friends with then board president Julie Sinowski. Both of those women were former presidents of, you guessed it, the Scottsdale Education Association, which is nothing more than an arm of the Democratic Party. I spent the past 18 years doing volunteer veteran presentations for the Joe
026Floss Institute in schools around the state. This organization places combat veterans in schools all over the nation. I have over 16,000 thank you letters. I haven't done a single presentation in the Scottsdale schools for the past two years because Scott Menzel wanted to send a clear message to every teacher and coach in this district that if you ever defy my woke agenda, you will pay a steep price and you don't care. This school board needs real leadership and it starts with these two amazing Republican women. They are smart, experienced, tough, have a backbone in dealing with Scott Manzel and unlike the Democrats, they actually care. >> Thank you, TJ Buckley. >> Good evening, President Dr. Lewis, uh, Vice President Shy, governing board members, Superintendent Dr. Mensel, Glattus, and guests. I am TJ Buckley, the current
027president of Scottsdale Education Association and a proud teacher of at Mountain Side Middle School. Uh, this year has gotten off to a great start. The energy of a fresh start has been wonderful to feel on many of our campuses throughout the district. We look forward to continuing to work with district administration and the governing board to continuously improve the learning conditions of our students. regarding the fresh start energy and learning conditions of our students. I am excited for the addition of artificial intelligence in our world to the high school curriculum. This class will allow us to educate our students on one of the most um challenging yet opportunistic uh parts of our evolving world. Uh, as a teacher, I've always kept my students, my classes student centered. I am focused on their engagement and the
028importance of them understanding the why in what in what we do. Due to this, I am concerned of the proposal uh to remove students from consideration on district curriculum adoption um committees as we'll see tonight in the agenda. It is critical for students to have the opportunity to involve themselves in our curriculum and resource reviews. As adults, we may feel we know it is best for students, but we must be able to consider their views on usability and engagement of content. I encourage the district to explicitly add parent and guardian involvement, which has already been in practice, but this should be this should not be done at the cost of student involvement. On a final note, for you as governing board members, you make decisions as the five of you. No one is excluded or
029should be excluded from the praise or blame of your decisions. We've seen press conferences throughout this summer that have been telling the community otherwise. If you want your student if you want your staff to work as one team, I encourage you to be their example. >> Thank you. All right, that brings us to uh six information discussion items. A uh for first read revisions of governing board policy IGA regarding curriculum development and that thank you starts here. >> All right. Thank you Miss Mlullen Madame President members of the governing board. Um, Miss board member Carney has brought forward two policies for your consideration for first read and they are governing board policy IGA is the first one up for your consideration. I don't know if it can pull up the blacklined version of that policy
030please so that members of the public can see the proposed changes. So with respect to governing board IGA um the removal of the language to organize committees to review curriculum would be removed from that policy and the addition if you could go lower please. uh the addition of a paragraph requiring the superintendent to notify the board of his intent or her intent to form a curriculum development committee and the specific inclusion of curriculum development committees as board advisory committees under open meeting law and governing board policy BDE. Miss Carney, I don't know if you would like to comment on this proposed policy revision. >> Sure. Thank you. Um on June 10th I had presented first reads on policy updates to uh BDE and BDF uh which I still believe we need but after uh board
031discussion I have withdrawn those for now and have instead brought these uh amendments to IG and JJ that I believe are in better alignment with the desire to ensure that parents guardians are offered the opportunity to apply for curriculum committees and also that the board is notified in advance of any curriculum committees, >> board members, any other comments or questions? And I'd like to note that at 6:26, Matt joined us live in person. Uh Dr. Patinsky joined us live in person. Uh Miss Warner, I don't know if you have anything you want to add. Okay. >> No, I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay. Not yet. Okay. Uh Mr. Shy. >> Yeah. Thank you. Um, kind of continuing the conversation we had before. Um, and by the way, thank you because after that meeting you reached
032out to me and we had met on a weekend and talked through some things. So, thank you very much for reaching out. Um, I'm still not clear on what problem is solved by making curriculum a board committee instead of a superintendent committee. I don't know what that achieves. So, can you help clarify? >> Um, sure. Thank you. Well, we had talked about that it is an advisory committee to the board. A curriculum committee is an advisory committee to the board. So, it should be under BDE, not under CE because they're advising us to make a decision. >> The board already has there there's already a checkpoint in the workflow that after the curriculum committee as a superintendent committee makes its recommendation, it goes to the board for vote. So as board we already have a
033say in the workflow. Again I just don't see what's happening now that is problematic that making this change will fix. So that's again I still don't clearly see what's the problem now. >> Okay. Well then I mean I we went over this and we've gone over and over it. So I mean if it's something that you are not for then you don't have to. So when we when we talked, we had a conversation about we could do a better job at publicizing and letting families know and I said that's a very positive thing. >> This to me has nothing to do with that. So again, I just am looking for a clear statement of what this change will what problem it will solve >> because you don't see that on here because that's the next
034policy that's not to do with IGA. IGA and the the change in this policy will con the board has never known when the a committee is starting like I said I found curriculum committees when I would just happen to go on the website and find them this policy now will be that the committee has to come to the board before it begins we will know the board that this curriculum development committee is beginning that's what the change is in this policy >> are there other ways to solve that like it's on a public website there are many ways to know that a curriculum is being formed. There's, as far as I can tell, there's no secret when we do it. It's a public website where it's there, where it's published. So adding a step in
035the workflow to saying when the superintendent forms a curriculum committee, make a note of it at the board meeting or something, I think would be a positive. But changing the structure, which seems to have potential downstream impacts, seems like overkill. If the problem we're trying to solve is we need to let people more people know that a fork committee is being formed. So if that's what the problem we're trying to solve is we just want to make sure like that seems to me to be just a process change not a whole committee change. >> Well it hasn't happened uh in the many years that I have been dealing with this. So therefore I brought change to policy because that is what we're supposed to do. Um, and if like I said, you may add your
036thoughts to this. You may not vote for it, but this is what I feel that we need from all the experiences I've had working with curriculum committees in this district. >> Dr. Patensky. >> Yeah, in in my experience, Dr. Mensel has communicated curriculum committees and invited the public to join. Um maybe another way of asking the question is what in practice would change by the change in the type of committee? Are there different standards? Are there different open meeting law requirements or trying to understand what is the practical effect of changing the type of committee that the curriculum committee is? >> Madam President, may I take a stab at that? >> Yes, please. >> Okay. Uh Madame President, Dr. Patensky. So if the changes to both policies are adopted, both IG and JJ, then the
037formation of a curriculum development committee would come rather than under governing board policy CE, it would be created under governing board policy BDE entitled board committees. The um I've reviewed the um tape of your all's discussion on June 10th and the information that you were given at that time is accurate. the both by legal counsel and by their superintendent the curriculum committees are required to comply with open meeting law due to state law. So it's that's an unusual uh requirement with it's the only type of superintendent committee that is required to comply with open meeting law according to the provisions of statute. um if if the changes are approved, the creation of the board under governing board policy BDE would subject it to that requirement. One of which is that uh the committee would have
038to create a charter and that charter would have to be approved by the board. So you would have more oversight with respect to the approval of the charter. It wouldn't necessarily mean that the superintendent couldn't select the committee. It wouldn't necessarily mean that you wouldn't be he wouldn't be able or she wouldn't be able to um publish in the same manner that has been or in a different manner but this board would have more control over the committee because you would be approving that charter under BDE. >> So no change in open meeting law and the introduction of a step around formation of a charter. Are there any other differences practically speaking? >> Madame President, Dr. Patinsky, because you would be approving the charter, the board could exercise parameters over the committee. That would be
039different. You could do that. You wouldn't have to do that. So let's say for instance that the charter indicates that it's supposed under governing board policy BDE the charter is to address the committee's mission authority responsibility composition frequency of meetings requirements for minutes and compliance with open meeting law. So any of those items you would have more control over as a board if it's com if it's uh go ahead >> formed under BDE versus under governing board policy CE. So if I'm concerned about kind of political influence over curriculum decisions, then arguably this would provide elected officials more ability to influence curriculum recommendations than the current process. >> Madame President, Dr. Patinsky, I can't I can't comment on the political influence issue, but you would have more control as a board. >> Okay. Thank you.
040Dr. Mville, >> uh I if I can just add to that under the current um under the BDE policy, it indicates that no more than two board members may serve on any one committee. Under superintendent created committees, board members can serve exeicio but cannot serve as actual committee members. So by shifting it this way, it would also allow for board members who are approving the final recommendation of the committee to be voting members of the committee itself. Thank you. >> I would just like to add to that which is why I originally tried to separate out back the BDE and the BDF so we didn't have that issue. Um I was trying to not over complicate things and have four policy reads on here. Um but that is not no I'm not looking for the
041board to be more involved or any political agenda or whatever you're saying. What I'm looking for is transparent transparency out the gate and we should know when a curriculum committee is happening and approve that. It's simple. >> So when you say transparency, what are examples? Are people saying I had no idea a committee was being formed? What's giving >> I as a board member had no idea uh the most recent math committee uh was being formed until I found it on the website. So, if I as a board member don't know, I can guarantee you no no one knows. No parents know. And that and that's that's all that this is is to make sure that the board is aware of what committees are going on before it even goes out to the public just
042so we can we don't have issues. We we had issues and we've had them in the past with curriculum committees and I don't want to see us have any more issues. I don't want to talk in circles, but I do want to clarify this does more than address a concern over notification of committees. Correct. It changes the level of authority and control that the board has over curriculum committees. >> Madame President, Dr. Patinsky, it would change the level of control. This particular policy addresses board member Carney's concern in that it would require the superintendent to notify, if you go to the bottom of that policy, would require the superintendent to notify the board of the creation of a curriculum committee. >> So I fully support that um to be clear. >> Any other comments? All
043right, this ends our first read conversation on IGA and we're ready to move to B, first read, revision of board policy JJ regarding textbook supplementary materials selection and adoption. >> Mr. Becklin, could you please pull up policy JJ in black form? Thank you. Madame President, members of the governing board, governing board policy JJ is about the textbook supplementary material selection and adoption policy. There are uh changes in the first paragraph only. Well, and one word change in the second par third paragraph down. The changes in the top paragraph would um remove students from being members of the textbook selection committees and add parents legal guardians and then would incorporate the same language as is proposed in governing board IGA making the um textbook curriculum committees board advisory committees under open media law and BDE. The
044other recommended change by board member Carney was to um designate that the primary district office would be the place in which uh textbooks would be displayed um so that it I understand last time it was at Oak and she'd like to see it moved to the district office on Jack Rabbit and Miss Garnney I don't know if I summarized the proposed changes correctly. >> Sure. Thank you. So I'll just go over um the changes uh removing students and putting parents legal guardians. There's nothing against students. That is just because that has not been part of our practice. We have not had students on our curriculum committees. Um we do need to add in the parents and legal guardians. Um and then once again this would fall under governing board policy BDE because that is what
045the policy we have uh for the board. And then I did uh just discuss that policy did read that textbook uh selection committees displaying the curriculum are supposed to be in the district office and they have been recently held at Oak. So that that is not following policy. So we need to make sure that we clear that up. So we I just added that. >> Mr. Shy, >> um I understand um putting parents legal guardians. community members already there. So that's inclusive. Is there been a problem with parents and legal guardians being excluded from committees? I'm curious why it's there when again community members is all-encompassing, but I understand trying to call explicitly. >> Well, yes. If you just look at the u the past the um US history, the social sciences um there were
046no parents on that committee >> because they were not included or nobody applied. >> They didn't apply because they didn't know about it. It was never put out to the public. And that's why I'm bringing this forward and I had discussed this specifically with you and with the entire board uh June 10th. We need to ensure that uh curriculum committees go go out to all parents not just select groups not just said from the dis one time to at a board meeting that no one's watching. Um it needs to go out to all parents and then they can decide if they want to apply or not. And so that would be done in in regulation. we would adopt this and then the superintendent would then say how he wants to to do that in the
047regulation. >> So can I ask for clarifying what's the current process today when a new committee is being formed? What is the communication process? >> So it's posted on the website. Uh we have sent it out to uh Scottsdale parent council and others. Uh we have said previously and we haven't had a new curriculum process start since we've made this commitment that we would use parent square to send it out to all of our parents. And so we reached out to through building principles and others to share the information. It was mentioned at governing board meetings. These are public meetings. They're available on YouTube. Any one can watch at any time. So it's on our website. Uh we've worked to get the information out there but we know that our tool with parent square allows
048us to reach more parents and that was our commitment. But we haven't launched a new curriculum committee since the last time we've had this conversation. >> A question. If I'm just I'm not exactly sure about the sentence construction. If for some reason parents or legal guardians didn't step forward to serve on the committee, would that mean the committee could not move forward and do its work? Is it a requirement that it's not a duly constituted commitment without them committee without them or it's simply kind of parameters for what an ideal committee would look like? >> Dr. Lewis, Dr. Patinsky, um the language above where it says shall provide for the appropriate involvement, I think gives enough wiggle room. So, for instance, if there weren't any parents that applied, I think the committee could still be
049um convened with staff members and community members. But this is the point in time where you can make clarifications as to the language if you'd like to do so. >> Mr. Shy, >> Miss Carney, um the communications, which again we talked about and I think we is great to hear from Dr. Mensel what we do and if we don't feel that's enough, we could do more. Do you feel parents are dissuaded in any way from participating in committees or is it just communication issue? Do you feel there's any negative persuasion of not wanting parents involved? >> I I wouldn't know that. I just want to make sure that it goes out to all the parents. Um it's going back to even the SAVIS ELA 9 through2 committee. If you go back and look at that,
050that had no parents on it as well. I've been talking about this uh since I was a parent myself. We had big problems with this back in 2021. So these are issues we've had over and over again which are not being resolved. So that's why I'm now bringing policy change so that we can make sure that this doesn't happen anymore. If you look at other districts, you look at uh Poria who who um you know we used as an example, you look on there, it's it's got parents. I mean it's we do not. So I would just like to get this done in policy so we don't have these issues moving forward. Whether parents apply or they don't apply, that's that's not on us. We need to make sure that they have the right and
051the option to do that and they have not had that. >> Like we talked about, we met I'm fully for improving our communications. Um to me that is process not policy. I don't want to try to set a precedent of changing process from the policy level when it really is hey let's talk on a communications level. Let's talk with those who are forming of are there better ways we can communicate more channels. That to me I think is a tactical which I fully support but doing through policy seems to have unintended consequences that concern me. >> Absolutely not. Our job as board members is to update policy when we see that processes aren't working and that is exactly why I am bringing this update to policy JJ. Yeah, I would say my sense of why
052we haven't had parents is more just how substantial a time commitment it is as opposed to the lack of awareness that these things are happening. Um, but we don't obviously have a a way of adjudicating that. I just want to be clear. I I would fully support the change that enumerates parents and legal guardians. I think they are particularly important members of our community, especially since it's our kids who are going to experience the curriculum. I'd love to do that without losing students even if in practice um you know we haven't included students again I think it sets a nice expectation of what holistic participation would look like. I don't support changing the nature of the committee because of all the unintended consequences of what you know one form of committee might be versus another.
053Um, I don't question this board, but you never know how future boards might use that authority. Um, so if this is just about enumerating kind of the involvement of parents and guardians, I fully support that. I'm going to echo uh any modifications through read one to read approve to keep the students included and emphasize the parents as part of the community members uh with an added e you know operational effort. My my uh and I don't I think the primary district display is fine. It's the which shall be operated as a board advisory committee that is to me where the meat and potatoes of the change is. So I just like to hear a little bit more about shall be operated as board advisory and I just know the intensity of staff relative to that
054practice for efficiency of process. I don't know Miss McLullen if you have any words of wisdom there input there before any of us chime in. >> Uh Dr. Dr. Lewis, I would just again point you to governing your gravity board policy BDE, which is the manner in which those committees would operate. So they would need to come to the board with the charter and the board would have discretion to make changes to that charter. >> Let me ask you a question. Um, textbook selection committees are standard in every district, right? Yeah. >> Um, so do you believe a textbook selection committee should be a superintendent committee? >> I believe I believe it should be students, parents, community members, and staff who've been trained in the content area and who use it daily. >> I'm asking
055is should a textbook selection committee be a board committee or a superintendent committee? >> That's that's where >> I believe that that's an operational practice and that we assign that to the executive who is the superintendent. So in Kraton that's what you did. They were your your textbook everywhere I've ever >> selection committees were yours. >> I just want to ask too about the math committee. We have parents on the math committee >> just as a side. >> Yes we do currently have some parents on um the math textbook selection committee. Um to Dr. Patinsk's point. Uh it is a large time commitment and so we did have some parents after the spring session saying thank you so much but I'm not sure I'm going to be able to hang through the fall. And so
056we will likely be opening an additional recruitment for some an additional layer of parents to engage as we're reviewing the actual materials in which we will absolutely be um leveraging a new communication strategy also to increase um and encourage families uh to participate. but they uh we have lost some over the course of the summer. >> And if I can add, I would encourage people to go to our website under departments curriculum and look at completed textbook adoptions because many of the curriculum committees uh that have happened since 2020 have parent representation on there. You can go through the list and see them. Not all uh but many if not most of them have parent representation. So we've invited, encouraged and embraced parent participation in the process. not only are they able to participate if
057they apply to be on the committee, but there's the 60-day public review period where their comments are invited and taken into consideration by the committee. So, there's multiple opportunities for parents to provide feedback on the textbooks that are being considered uh for adoption. And so, I would respectfully disagree with the sentiment that we don't have and haven't invited parents because you can see their names listed on our website. Um, since we're bringing up the math curriculum committee, how was that put out to the public? >> Um, the math curriculum committee was announced, I believe, formerly at a board meeting that it was happening, uh, v sent via Scottsdale parent council and then via admin in, uh, inbox and teacher talk asking schools to also send along with their family communications that as a recruitment tool.
058>> Okay. I believe that was the social sciences uh committee that that was done, but it was never said at a board meeting. Um I I never I never heard or saw it go out to anyone. Um I as a board member, I will always put it out to the community. I on social media or however I can. So I think it's important that we all do that once we know, right? Try to get it out in every avenue we can. I just think that we need to um change policy so that we can ensure that our curriculum committees are done properly, transparent and we get as much uh involvement as we can. >> Dr. Patensky. >> Yeah, I fully support enumerating parents. I fully support transparency and I'm glad to hear that. Um and
059already, you know, recognize that open meeting laws apply. My concern with changing the type of committee is very simple. We heard whether they supported the social studies curriculum recommendation or opposed it. The one thing that everyone in the community agreed with is they did not want political influence in the curriculum. They did not want the board putting their political stamp on the curriculum. So to approve a change of committee that instead of making the process bottoms up from our expert teachers and other participants in the process and instead allow it to be top down where some future board whose political beliefs might be very different from yours might be very different from mine say I'm going to set up this curriculum committee and I'm going to say that they have to teach 2 plus 2
060equals 5 and I'm going to appoint myself and one other person to join the committee to ensure that the recommendation of curriculum says 2 plus 2 equals 5 and then that comes back to the board. I think our community deserves to get curriculum recommendations that are free of the political influence of the board and to as even as it is an important responsibility of the board to ultimately ensure that good process was followed and to ultimately improve the recommendation. But I think the unintended consequences of providing the board not only the final say but the first say would seriously undermine the confidence of our community in the quality of the recommendations. So I support insisting on public communication. I support parental involvement. I don't see why we need to change the nature of the committee
061and I think the unintended consequences are quite serious. >> Mr. Sharky. >> Uh, just to add a tip, um, I went up and I found a website where you can have it watch web pages and whenever they change the email you, so I set up a watch on the curriculum page and whenever it changes, I get an email saying this page changed. So when a curriculum changes so that way for people I imagine if someone is that concerned and that involved in curriculum um either they can you know set a reminder on their calendar to go out and check the website once a week or every couple weeks or find a tool that will push it to them directly. So I've got to believe that people that are in a good way that involved will
062know and so just sharing that there are ways again nothing trying to hide it's on a public website. Any other final comments? All right. Thank you for the introduction for the first read on JJ. Brings us to consent agenda item seven. I make a motion that we approve consent agenda item uh for board action as presented. Items A through R. Need a second. >> I second the motion. >> Uh all those in favor? I >> I >> All right, that's a 50 pass. Thank you. We're now into action items. Item number eight. And the first of the three is proposed adoption uh introducing the notion of a waiver of a first read and to approve the revision of board policy beb regarding the agenda. Miss McCullen, >> Madame President, members of the governing board, Miss
063Carney is bringing forward a policy change that she's asked the board to adopt this evening with a waiver of first read under governing board policy BGB. The change is to the policy regarding your agendas. Um, it would move the governing board reports up in the agenda and would remove the limitation of two minutes. >> I'll just speak to this. I think we had kind of mentioned this um at one of the last meetings I had and um about moving that up because some of our meetings were so long that by the time we got to the government board reports, we just were like we don't feel right. We want to, you know, get the meeting done since it was five, six hours. So, just moving it back up. Um, I also said to remove the
064time limit that was put on by a former board member. I just think we're all professional enough um to respect knowing that we don't want to take too much time that we do not need a time limit put on us. We can monitor that ourselves. >> Um, I'll say I'm in support of moving up. I think it does a good job of showing the board's involvement in things we do. Um realizing though that it's not about us. Um it's about the kids and the school and the policy. Um I'd want to keep a time limit on there just because you never know somewhere down the road somebody might take a chance to uh filibuster and try to do something. And so um I'm confident we could be professional and keep it short and so I'd
065like to keep it there. >> Dr. Mr. Pensky, >> I would like to think that it's important for the community to understand how the board's involved in the school district. At the same time, I think it's even more important for us to get to the actual business of the meeting as soon as possible. The feedback that I get about the agenda is folks come and it just takes hours and hours and hours. I mean, we heard the example in uh open uh comments about five hours before an executive session topic could be addressed. So, as important as I'd like to think our involvement is, I I don't think it supersedes the importance of the actual sort of work that we've been sent here to do. So, my preference would be to keep it at the
066end. It's really more of a matter of record for folks to understand how we're involved as opposed to, you know, I would hope an opportunity to, you know, do other things other than say, you know, I volunteered here or I had a chance to visit here or I saw this. Um, so I don't see what problem it solves moving it up. It just delays us getting to the meeting. >> Miss Warner, are you still on? >> I am. >> You want to comment? >> I am in Yeah, I will comment. So historically the uh board report was at the beginning of the meeting which is where board mccarnney is moving it requested to move it back to um it it is sometimes we do want to recognize people that we have met with in the
067schools or there are things that we've attended and that we want to recognize and when it was switched to the end of the meeting um no one's listening no one's there and it just it really changed the whole aspect of it. I don't think anyone um has any intention of of having a run-on uh board report where they're taking up an a large amount of time. I mean, I would hope not. Anyway, so I am in support of this. And Miss McClennon, while I have the floor here, um we had had a conversation, not you and I, but the board, I did it publicly related to adding the the um conference and travel expenses to the consent agenda. um so that instead of baking it into the budget which had been and I don't know
068if that's been addressed uh from you know within the administration but I would like to add that as well if that's something that we can add on today that um we add the travel and conference expenses to the consent agenda to be in alignment with our um >> bordering districts actually most districts do that >> madam president may I ask Miss Warner a clarifying question so Miss Warner right now I've just pulled up the section of the agenda that delineates that the governing board agenda will have a consent agenda. It doesn't delineate what has to be on that consent agenda. Um so I don't not know I don't understand if your proposal is to add this as a separate line item. it was. But you know what? I will um I will schedule an appointment
069with you and we can discuss it and we can talk with um Miss Croer and so on and and and bring it back to the agenda later. >> Thank you. I think that'll be the best way because I am I am supportive of of board members Carney Carney's amendment here and I think that we should move forward with that and um I will loop back around with you related to the travel and conference expenses to be listed on the consent agenda. >> Dr. Patensky, >> may I ask why it's not a first read just so we have the opportunity to, >> you know, I haven't gone back to see why it was originally changed and, you know, normally we do and and perhaps there's an openness to put a time limit on it between now
070and ultimate approval. So, >> Dr. Lewis, Dr. Patinsky, it was at the request of Miss Carney. >> Yeah, sometimes rarely, but we by policy we can do that. I thought it was a very simple change. we either were for it or we're not for it, right? So, I didn't want to have waste more time in another meeting. If that's something you feel we need to do, we can do that. I just was trying to streamline and be a little more efficient since it's such a simple change. >> Would you be comfortable keeping the time limit? >> Yeah, that's fine. I mean, yeah, that I I'm open to whatever wants to to do. >> You want to make an amendment in within a motion to uh waiver the first read I'm suggesting Dr. Patensky if from
071his question if you want to make a motion that says yes we'll wave the first read but I want to keep the two minutes and that's my motion see if you get a second that's one way to do it based on what you just heard Miss Carney say >> would that be a friendly motion >> okay >> yeah this isn't that serious so it just I felt was a simple uh change and so you may make a motion for any >> okay >> thing you like >> so I make a motion that we wave um the first read and move forward with consideration um with the um change that we keep the limit of two minutes but otherwise move it up in the agenda as proposed. >> Need a second. >> Second. >> Thank you
072Miss Carney. >> Miss Warner said that. Okay. Thank you Miss Warner. All right. All right. So, we have a a motion and a second. Uh, any other discussion? All right. All All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. We have unanimous consent for 50. Thank you for the amended motion. We're now moving to proposed priorities for submission to the Arizona School Board Association agenda. It's a I think I think it's a two or three pager that was put in your uh agenda uh developed by 70 plus people down at ASBA these last few weeks as they've ironed through what they want to move forward on. Uh it would be my job to liaison to the uh uh schoolboard association uh this coming law conference in September. So any suggestions you have I
073will take. Otherwise, I'll just entertain a motion uh for the agenda to be approved, and I would certainly take any personal comments you'd like me to share uh as leaison uh to ASBA. So, we just need a motion for approval, unless you want to discuss it first. >> I I would >> go for go ahead, Dr. Mr. Shy. >> Um what are we doing by approving? There's a lot of content in there and I I just don't know what the point of approving what it actually accomplishes. >> Yeah, I I actually agree with you. Uh it's been protocol for ASBA for decades to come up with an agenda and have their membership say, "Yeah, rah, and we support what you've written." I know there's nuances and and a little left and a little right trends
074that people do and don't agree with uh that they uh mitigate in those uh legislative conversations. Uh so but they present it as a mediated uh group of agenda items that they'd like to see approved so from their members. >> So a bit more of a formality just say yeah which again there's so much content in there. I I feel like it's a implicit endorsement of every bullet point on there and I'd be hesitant to say I approve or we as a board approve because I think there's just way too much there. So, >> and I would say one of the recommendations you can say is, you know, we approve of the basic premise of the agenda. Uh we have concerns about X, Y, and Z. >> There is no basic premise. There's 87 bullet
075points in there. >> Yep. I I don't disagree. All right, Miss Carney, I'd like to just say that I agree with board member Shy and is exactly I was the ASBA delegate last year and I did not put this on the agenda for that reason. It doesn't have to go on the agenda. We don't doesn't we don't have to vote on this. Um it's going to doesn't matter. It's not something I feel like we should be voting on and so I I agree with that. There's way too much in there and um I I just don't think that we need to be voting on this. >> Any other comments? >> Well, I'd rather you know the I agree to be clear. Um I don't think we want to approve something as broad-based and multifaceted. At
076the same time, I don't want to disapprove it. Like I don't want >> we can stay silent >> it to you know I don't want it to be misinterpreted as opposition in the same way we're voting for it is support. So is it possible to just withdraw it from the agenda? >> Yes it is. >> Any other comments? So we have no motion and uh basically a removal of this action item. Okay. That move brings us to 8C, uh, approval of additional courses for our middle school and high school planning guide. Thank you so much. Good evening. Uh, for your consideration are a couple additions to the planning guide. Um, one specifically is the offering um of a partial year elective, sorry, a semesterl long elective um, beginning in the spring semester for our Scottsdale
077online students. Um it is an artificial intelligence in our world course. Um we're looking to start adding artificial intelligence courses into our course progressions for our students and because we already own the full course catalog um and are able to offer the opportunity um we were wanting to add it to the planning guide for this year also then in if it goes well potentially being able to expand in the future. Um the second is um for Mountainside Middle School where we'll just be recommending a course change in name where we offer more exploratory Spanish using the same materials that are already adopted for our exploratory Spanish courses. Um but because of their my status, having the my exploratory Spanish allows children really and truly to engage in a variety of learner profiles, engage in their
078own exploration of language before really deciding on which language pursuit is most um exciting for them. You may not know the answer to this. Is there anything in there about financial literacy for our students? >> Is there anything in exploratory Spanish or artificial intelligence or in the planning guides in general? >> Okay. Yes. So, sorry about that. Yes, absolutely. We um offer financial literacy coursework. We also of course have a graduation requirement of economics and I think what you'll find is through the financial literacy seal in the state of Arizona there's been an amplification of supports and services for financial literacy. So we offer a seal of financial literacy now which many of our econ students engage in and there are additional course opportunities um in that same vein. >> I just going to keep
079asking about it. >> Yeah. >> Any other comments regarding the middle school or high school planning guide? Yeah, >> go ahead. Dr. Mr. Shy, >> um, for the AI in the world, you said that's for Scottsdale online. Is there any implication or benefit for um, inerson students of that by having this in the catalog? >> We do think so. We believe there would be future potential implications in a positive way for students. We wanted to try this specific course content in Scottsdale online because it's a fully asynchronous course development. And so before we really launch that across all of our brick-andmortar schools for students, we want to make sure that that implementation is the best learning experience for our brickandmortar students too. So in the spring semester when we have some of our students doing
080it, we'll likely be asking and trying to figure out is this specific course content, course design the most impactful. But I would anticipate in um the next year's planning guide that will come forward for um approval this fall some additional courses really targeting um AI literacy really across our K12 experiences. >> Thank you. >> All right, with that we'll go ahead and uh I make a motion that we approve the additional course for middle school and high school planning guide as presented. >> Second the motion. All those in favor? >> I That's a 50 unless I hear otherwise. >> All right. 50 passage. Uh so we are now at governing board reports. Wow. I actually wrote stuff down again to share and usually I'm so tired by the end of the meeting I'm like ah
081you know never mind and there's nobody here to hear it so this is a refreshing moment. Uh we'll I'll just go ahead and and roll call anybody has a governing board report. Uh Miss Carney, you have anything to share? Okay. Dr. Patensky, Miss Warner, Mr. Shy? >> I do. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> She said I don't >> I I don't today. I will next time though. >> Okay. What? >> Um I attended uh my first back to school rally and it was just amazing. It was so inspirational and just seeing everybody there. I've got a neighbor who's a teacher and saw her the next day kind of out and um just really really great to see. So, you know, I've been involved as a as a parent uh but never to that level.
082So, I'm glad to see me do that and really happy to be able to experience it myself. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I have to echo the back to school rally was energizing. I felt like I was leaning in that the teachers were excited. And one of the highlights for me as a person over the last decade who has watched when we asked teachers who were returning to stand up was to see the full crowd stand up. And I'm telling you, when we have people who are new, sometimes if not for the past decade, it's been 25% of the audience standing up saying we're new. You know, this is this is the high turnover that we were so used to 25%. So, whatever you're doing, whatever we're doing, thank you for the retention rate that
083is so clearly felt that not only was the rally exciting, but it was just great to see the return energy. Uh, I would I also liked and and I loved the theme, our our focus, their future. There's just that that pulse on the values just felt like it was in every corner of our district. Uh, I enjoyed our summer school grad. I know Miss uh Warner and I were there and had a chance to see the students who completed graduation over the summer. That was exciting. Uh we also had, and this is new to me, so I hope I don't get it wrong, the Coronado Promise where the Charos and the uh foundation uh just provided a beautiful event celebrating our kids in Coronado. Uh thank you for that. Um, and I would also like
084to say it was an unexpected feeling of release and relief when the feds released the funds they were withholding that had already been approved by Congress. And I know that the work that we don't know that we don't see that was moving around to try to figure out what to do if that those funds weren't released. I know you guys were working like crazy on that and thank you for plan B and C, but we didn't need it because they were released. So, a silent little round of applause for the feds doing the right thing and getting our kids the services they need. So, uh that concludes my board report. Uh future agenda items. Board members may propose topics for future consideration. I would like to put financial literacy on a future agenda. There's an
085article that came out recently from AASA. I'm going to get a copy for all y'all. All y'all. All right. And then we have other ways to get our future agenda items forward if you'd like. Any other comments on future agenda? Okay. Dates for our upcoming meeting. Um, August 19th at 6:00 p.m. we'll have a special governing board meeting uh at the middle school, right? >> MDA. MDA. Right. So, we'll see everybody there. I would like to make a motion to adjourn the meeting. >> Second motion. >> All those in favor? I. >> We have a 50. Thank you, everyone.